Analyzing the Revenue Potential of WWE YouTube Channel

This project analyzes the revenue potential of WWE YouTube channel through advertisements and Patreon. The analysis includes data on subscribers, video views, estimated earnings, and Patreon earnings. The project concludes that YouTube can be a source of revenue and encourages those who wish to start their own YouTube channel. The book references provide information on how to effectively run a YouTube channel and increase competitiveness.

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Student Name
University
Date

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INTRODUCTION
YouTube channel owners have various ways of earning from the content they post online. One of
the ways is through the advertisements which are put in the videos uploaded by the channel
owner. For every view on the advertisement the owner of the channel earns (Gill et al., 2007). In
every dollar paid by the advertisers an average YouTube creator earns 55% while Google
pockets 45% Neilson, 2013. This money is channeled to the Channel owner through payment
methods such as PayPal and Credit cards. The other way the YouTuber can earn is through
Patreon. According to Ramos et al. (2014, p. 18-25) this is a platform which allows the channel
owner to earn money from patrons who are the viewers of their content. The money is made as
donations to the content creator. Patreon takes 5% of the revenue donated by viewers and 5% is
transaction fee thus it pays the channel owner the remaining 90%. The WWE YouTube channel
is one of the leading channels posting a large amount of content with many subscribers
translating to high earnings. In this project the WWE YouTube channel is analyzed in detail and
its potential earnings calculated, a forecast is done on what it could earn in future. The payments
are made to the WWE channel owners via PayPal (Ha, 2018 p.135).
BACKGROUND
There are many people who make a living out of posting their content on YouTube. In order for
one to start earning from YouTube they must ensure that they have monetized their YouTube
account and reviewed the YouTube terms and conditions (Guillemin et al., 2013, p. 1-9). The
WWE channel is one of the many channels that has made a huge amount of revenue since the
inception of YouTube in 2015. The table below summarizes the revenue it made in five days in
September 2018:
TABLE
The WWE channel is one of the leading YouTube channels in terms of subscribers and revenue.
This can be proven by the table below showing the number of subscribers and the revenue earned
in a period of five days in the month of September 2018 (Levine et al., 2009).
Calendar Date Subscribers Video Views Estimated
Patreon
Earnings
Total Estimated
Earnings
1-Sep-18 32409760 25,983,098,078 $890 $139,878
2-Sep-18 32474769 26,011,034,223 $769 $124,678
3-Sep-18 32544769 26,057,558,009 $560 $103,456
4-Sep-18 32542986 26,099,558,094 $456 $123,445
5-Sep-18 32614769 26,143,423,004 $456 $159,580
Table showing the earning from the WWE YouTube Channel on a period of five days.

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From the table above it can be noted that the WWE YouTube channel earned a substantial
amount of money estimated to be a total of $ 651,037. This makes the channel worth analyzing
since it’s a trend setter in the industry.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Variables
There are six variables used in the design of the data of the revenues earned by the WWE
YouTube channel. The variables are the total subscribers, the daily subscribers in the month of
September 2018, the daily video views on the channel, the total video views on the channel
calculated on a daily basis, the estimated Patreon earning on the channel and the total estimated
earnings by the channel (Ohlsen, 2017). The determinant of the total estimated earnings and the
Patreon earnings is the total video views since people must view the content of the channel in
order to view the advertisements put in the videos so that the channel can generate revenue. In
the same way people must view the channel in order to get patrons who can make donations
leading to the Patreon earnings. The daily views depend on the total subscribers in some
percentage in that the higher the number of subscribers the higher the number of daily views thus
translating to higher revenue. In the case of WWE the channel has millions of subscribers
translating to millions of daily views on its content (Peakall, R. & Smouse, P., 2006, p. 288-295.)
Results and Discussion
The Daily Subscribers of the WWE Channel

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The graph above shows the daily subscribers of the WWE channel calculated in the month of
September 2018 (Fylstra et al., 2008).
From the graph it can be depicted that the number of subscribers to the WWE channel vary in
every day of the month of the September 2018 with 17th September and 5th September having the
highest number of subscribers and 14th September having the lowest number of subscribers. The
high number of subscribers may be attributed to massive advertising and the fact that on these
days new episodes of the WWE videos come up (Zhang, 2010, 306-314). Generally the daily
number of subscribers is somehow at par in every day of the month with slight variations.

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The daily Video views on the WWE channel
The graph above shows the daily Video views of the WWE channel calculated in the month of
September 2018.
From the graph above it can be depicted that 3rd, 5th, 6th and 11th September had the highest level
of video views. The high number of video views may be due to massive advertising by the
channel owners. This translates to high revenue on these days. The numbers of daily video views
are almost consistent showing that the channel users are loyal.
The total Estimate Earnings of the WWE video channel
The graph above shows the daily total estimated earnings of the WWE channel calculated in the
month of September 2018 (Ameigeiras et al., 2012, p. 360-377).

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From the line chart above it can be depicted that the earnings from the WWE video channel vary
from day to day. There is a sharp rise on the 6th day of the month and the 11th day. The 15th day of
the month records the lowest amount of earning from the video channel. The high earnings are
due to the high amount of video views on these days and the fact that the channel works in a way
that the channel owners earn from the number of views on advertisements linked to their videos
and the donations made by viewers through Patreon (Hanson et al., 2013, p.324-456).
The Total WWE Subscribers in the month of September 2018
The line chart above shows the total subscribers of the WWE channel in the month of September
2018.
From the line chart it can be shown that the number of subscribers in the WWE channel rises
each day. The line steadily rises showing that each day records a certain percentage of new
subscribers. This is a sign that the channel is growing even further and its revenues increasing
each day. This is due to the massive advertisements made by the owners of the channel on their
content on social media platforms and the mainstream media in the world (Hanson et al., 2013,
p.324-456).

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The Estimated Patreon Earnings in the month of September
The graph above shows the estimated Patreon earnings in the month of September 2018 on the
WWE channel
From the graph it can be depicted that 7th, 15th, 8th, and 17th September attracted the most income
from Patriots. This donations are directly linked to the high number of viewers on this particular
days. The high number of viewers were as a result of massive advertisements and uploading of
new content to the WWE YouTube channel.
Note: The Patreon estimated earning documented is only 90% of the total Patreon earning since
the channel owner is entitled to only that percentage.

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The WWE total video views calculated Daily in the month of September 2018
The line chart above shows the total number of video views of the WWE channel calculated in
the month of September 2018.
From the graph it can be depicted that the total video views in the WWE channel increases from
day to day. This shows that there are many people who visit the channel to view their uploaded
content every day.
FORECAST
From the results of the data analysis above there is a positive growth on the WWE channel
owing to the increasing number of subscribers and the large number of views in their content
every day. The WWE channel is going to increase in viewer subscription and revenue generation
even further due to their massive advertisements and constant uploading of new content. The

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Patreon revenue is predicted to rise too due to the positive trend of the number of subscribers on
the channel.
CONCLUSION
From the results and discussion above its evident that YouTube can be a revenue source. The
means discussed above in which a YouTuber can earn from uploading their content on YouTube
such as through the advertisements posted on their videos and from Patreon have enabled many
people and organizations to make huge sums of money. From the analysis it can be noted that
over the one month period the WWE YouTube channel earned a substantial amount of money
from both the advertisements and the Patreon. The analysis on the channel shows that the
number of subscribers in the WWE channel rises each day with each day recording a certain
percentage of new subscribers. This is a symbol that the channel is advancing and its revenues
increasing each day. This is due to the massive advertisements made by the channel owners on
their content on the mainstream media and social media platforms in the world. This should
serve as an encouragement to those who wish to start their own YouTube channel that they can
be able to make a living out of posting their videos on YouTube. They should consider
advertising their content massively after starting their channels in order to attract more
subscribers translating to more views and thus more revenue.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ameigeiras, P., Ramos‐Munoz, J.J., Navarro‐Ortiz, J. and Lopez‐Soler, J.M., 2012. Analysis and
modelling of YouTube traffic. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies,
23(4), pp.360-377.
The book talks about analysis of YouTube channels and modelling the revenue which can be
created by a YouTube channel.
Fylstra, D., Lasdon, L., Watson, J. and Waren, A., 2008. Design and use of the Microsoft Excel
Solver. Interfaces, 28(5), pp.29-55.
The book provides various Microsoft excel worked out examples.
Gill, P., Arlitt, M., Li, Z. and Mahanti, A., 2007, October. Youtube traffic characterization: a
view from the edge. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet
measurement (pp. 15-28). ACM.
The book talks about YouTube channels and how YouTubers can attract traffic to their channels.
Guillemin, F., Kauffmann, B., Moteau, S. and Simonian, A., 2013, September. Experimental
analysis of caching efficiency for youtube traffic in an isp network. In Teletraffic Congress
(ITC), 2013 25th International (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
The book talks about how effectively one can run a YouTube channel and the revenues made
from well managed channels.
Ha, L., 2018. Most Popular YouTube Channels. The Audience and Business of YouTube and
Online Videos, p.135.
The book provides information about various YouTube channels among which is the WWE.
Hanson, D., Hitt, M., Ireland, R. and Hoskisson, R. (2013). Strategic management. 5th ed.
Cengage Learning Australia, pp.324-456.
The book explain what organizations must do in order to increase their competitiveness and
achieve high performance. In this case the organization is the YouTube channel under analysis.

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Levine, D.M., Berenson, M.L., Stephan, D. and Lysell, D., 2009. Statistics for managers using
Microsoft Excel (Vol. 660). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
The book provides information on the various formulas which can be applied in drawing graphs
in excel.
Neilson, L.C. and McQuarrie, F.A., 2013, May. Public, but not too public: political campaigns,
media, and relationship marketing. In A Presentation at the MiT8 Conference, Massachusetts
Institute of technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
The article contains information on how money can be made online among which is using
YouTube.
Ohlsen, D.B., 2017. A Rhetorical Analysis of Hegemonic and Counterhegemonic Performances
in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). California State University, Long Beach.
The article provides the necessary data which was used for analysis on the WWE YouTube
channel.
Peakall, R.O.D. and Smouse, P.E., 2006. GENALEX 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population
genetic software for teaching and research. Molecular ecology notes, 6(1), pp.288-295.
The book talks about how to perform analysis on data using the excel software. Since the
analysis on this project is in excel the book was useful in guiding the analysis steps.
Ramos-Muñoz, J.J., Prados-Garzon, J., Ameigeiras, P., Navarro-Ortiz, J. and López-Soler, J.M.,
2014. Characteristics of mobile youtube traffic. IEEE Wireless Communications, 21(1), pp.18-
25.
The book specializes on how well organizations can ensure that they obtain YouTube traffic.
Zhang, Y., Huo, M., Zhou, J. and Xie, S., 2010. PKSolver: An add-in program for
pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data analysis in Microsoft Excel. Computer methods
and programs in biomedicine, 99(3), pp.306-314.
The book on pages 306 to 314 provides guidance on how to perform analysis on data using the
excel software. Since the analysis on this project is in excel the book was useful in guiding the
analysis steps.